Flipping out on 'flip' TV shows

I'm distracted, contemplating whether the bankrupt, corrupt Duke brothers would snare a government bailout today. So it takes a moment before I realize we're now watching TLC's "Flip That House," one of the scads of real estate and home improvement shows that popped up on cable in the boom market of recent years like so many Starbucks outlets.

What grabs my attention is that the TLC show is preceded by a warning to viewers that, along with the cold sweat I get lately whenever I think of my 401(k) balance, didn't used to be there:

"The following program features real people taking risks with real money. Flip at your own risk."

And so it has come to this.

Just as someone once determined MTV "Jackass" devotees had to be told that maybe it wasn't such a great idea to allow yourself to be Tasered, Maced and/or kicked in the groin, apparently we need to be warned this home stuff is something we shouldn't necessarily, you know, try at home.

"I want to say we added it at the end of January, and I have to confess that originally it was partially tongue-in-cheek, a way of showing that the tone of this show had changed, that this show had evolved from easy money to people facing challenges and not necessarily making money," TLC programming exec Eric Black explained by phone. "The fact is that over the year it seems to have [become] more serious and on-point for what's going on in the market."

The escapist, wish-fulfillment fare that fueled the fantasy that prices would rise forever and anyone could make a fortune in real estate with borrowed money, new carpet, fancy plumbing, a couple shrubs and fresh paint has become a cautionary tale.

"Viewers are getting not just different stories but different information from these shows now," said Black, noting producers still have found a peppering of upbeat stories in places such as Texas, where oil money has helped the housing market.

It remains a crowded TV subdivision of so many look-alike developments. A&E has "Flip This House" and "Sell This House!" to say nothing of Bravo's "Flipping Out" and "Million Dollar Listing," HGTV's "Buy Me," "Desperate to Buy," "Get It Sold," "Hidden Potential" and "Secrets That Sell," just to name a few.

Yet, acknowledging there has been a shift, "Flip That House" executive producer R.J. Cutler also has developed "Hope for Your Home," a TLC show in which owners are given cash, a contractor and the opportunity to boost their home's value.

"If you look at the arc of the stories that have been told over the life of some 150 episodes [of 'Flip That House'], you'll see that it really tells the story of real estate in America over the last several years," Cutler told reporters recently. "Now we're telling the stories of people who are entering a flip market where when the risk is much greater, when there's the likelihood of failure is far higher."

Even acknowledging all that, my wife remains among the genre's fans, hoping someday to apply the lessons she learned and the experience she gained in renovating our kitchen into something grander and more lucrative.

The fact that it's now far more difficult to get a loan for speculative purchases, let alone for home improvements, hasn't diminished the appeal of the genre so much as it has changed it. Good storytelling was always a draw, and there's undeniable drama against the backdrop of the diving Dow.

" 'Flip That House' has definitely gone from waiting to see what that number is at the end, how big that number can be, to waiting to see if there's a positive at all," Black said. "For some people there still is."

But viewer beware: It's not a seller's market; the market's in the cellar.

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About this blog

This is an expansion of the Chicago Tribune column I have written since April 2005, and the columns I wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times and Los Angeles’ Daily News for two decades before that. It’s TV, radio, newspapers and whatever, both locally and nationally. Beyond sharing what crosses my desk—and my mind—this will be a venue for you to share your takes with me as well as with each other. About Phil Rosenthal